Cheerleader case has TEA asking questions

Published 7:00 pm, Monday, August 12, 2002

A group of Tomball High School ex-cheerleaders' hopes to gain a position on the school's squad remain alive with recent developments on their appeal to the Texas Education Agency (TEA).

A group of four girls and their parents have been fighting to overturn a school administration decision to honor teacher evaluations used in the cheerleader selection process, a decision which resulted in the girls' exclusion from the upcoming squad. In the selection process, 50 percent of each girl's score was based on evaluations filed by teachers and the other 50 percent on a cheer performance. The complainants charge that the teacher evaluation process was unfair, disorganized, and overly subjective. The school administration denies these claims. Two attempts have been made by the families to overturn the administration's decision. On both occasions the Tomball School Board voted in favor of upholding it. As a result, the families have filed suit with the TEA.

A TEA senior administrative law judge ruled last week that more evidence is still needed to determine if the TEA has jurisdiction in the case.

Judge Christopher Maska said in his ruling the TEA commissioner lacks jurisdiction over alleged violations of local policy and over all violations of the Code of Ethics. "The Commissioner does have jurisdiction over violations of no pass, no play," he wrote.

Maska adds that the cheerleaders and their parents, however, need to provide more information on the no pass, no play violation by specifying which particular sections of the Texas Education Code, of which the no pass, no play law is part, has been violated.

The cheerleaders' lawyer, Chris Tritico, had the opportunity to replead the case by Aug. 9 based on the no pass, no play law. "The no pass, no play law dictates when a student can or cannot participate in an activity," Tritico told The Potpourri. "In this instance, all of these ladies were qualified based on the no pass, no play law. The evaluations allowed teachers to discriminate based on grades."

The evaluations Tritico refers to ranked the girls on a scale of 1 to 10 in areas such as creativity, initiative, motivation and grades. The legality of using grades on the evaluation is now in question.

District superintendent John Neubauer had no response to the pre-trial hearing, saying that there was nothing to respond to at this time. Neubauer contends that a final decision is yet to be reached on the jurisdiction issue, therefore, there is nothing to respond to. He said that even after this judge rules, it still has to be decided by the Commissioner of Education.

Valerie Daniels, mother of excluded cheerleader Brooke Daniels, who filed the appeal to the Texas Education Agency, was also reluctant to comment on the case. "After our second appearance before the school board, we publicly stated that we were going to step back and allow the process to be handled by the state and the appropriate agencies," Daniels told The Potpourri. "We regret that the district chose not to handle this locally and instead allowed it to fall in the hands of the state."

The fight started in May when four cheerleaders and their parents appeared before the Tomball school board to voice their concern with the cheerleading tryout process. They asked that the teacher evaluations be thrown out. Cheerleaders Brooke Daniels, Laura Caperton and Leilia Dupree are the cheerleaders who appealed the previous decisions to the TEA.

They submitted evaluations filled out by substitute teachers (whom school administrators claim called the teacher and filled it out for them), alleged the rating methods used by teachers were inconsistent from student to student, and presented charts alleging that girls who turned in less than the required eight evaluations were treated more favorably than those who did. They also alleged that many teachers did not know how to score on a scale from 1 to 10 the students' grades. They used examples of one of the girls receiving all A's the entire year but yet receiving a "7" on an evaluation in the grades category. Despite their pleas, the school board voted 4-2 in May to redo the system for the next year but not to throw-out the current year's teacher evaluations.

The board held a special meeting July 1, and in a 4-3 vote chose not to overturn their May decision. There is still a question as to if the minutes from this meeting can be used as evidence. The district was ordered to file the minutes and/or the tape recording of the meeting by Aug. 9 to determine whether the motion to rescind should be part of the record.

An oral argument will be held Sept. 3 by telephone at 9 a.m. The pre-trial hearing was held July 26. Maska's ruling was signed Aug. 2. After the ruling on Sept. 3 the case can be sent to the TEA commissioner or a commissioner's designee for a final decision, Adrienne Sobolak, TEA information officer, said.